As the term Supreme Soviet suggests, there were gov't organs called soviets at other levels, as reflected in the versions recent to the splitting out of
Soviet (council). IMO that could be acknowledged in an article w/o being silly, but on the other hand, we may never need to refer to them, and we needn't do so in advance. --
Jerzy
(t) 06:34, 2004 Apr 30 (UTC)
At this point, the article misdescribes the scope of Soviet (council), making it appear that lower gov't organs are not covered at all. The actual division, into obvious and somewhat obscure uses of "soviet" may be the ideal resolution of the problems of the preceding version (for the structure of which i bear the responsibility). I'll make an attempt to fix soon if others do not. -- Jerzy (t) 03:10, 2004 May 1 (UTC)
So can those term be used as a synonime for Bolshevicks and Red Russians between 1917 and 1924 or not? -- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 20:18, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Please click on "What links here" at the side of the Soviet article, and you will see the huge number of pages that link there, very likely nearly all meaning Soviet Union. Considering this, I suggest that Soviet should be made a redirect to Soviet Union, with at the top of Soviet Union either "Soviet" redirects here. See also soviet (council) and Supreme Soviet. or "Soviet" redirects here. For other uses, see Soviet (disambiguation)., where the current content of Soviet would be moved to Soviet (disambiguation). Is there agreement on the redirect?-- Pharos 01:39, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
I've done the move.-- Pharos 03:02, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
I disagree - it should be to Soviet (disambiguation). Jake95 16:43, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
I strongly doubt that anyone who knows Russian has contributed to this article. 'Soviet' (or 'sovet' by standard transliteration) is the Russian word for both 'council' and 'counsel' (advice). In English, the meanings of these two words are related - thus members of a Privy Council are known as 'Privy Counsellors'. In Russian, the two meanings are also related, and a single word is used. It may come a surprise to non-Russian-speakers in the US, but in Russia, the State Soviet was functioning as early as 1810. In English it is normally referred to as the Privy Council, but in Russian it was known as the Gosudarstvenniy Sovet, i.e. 'State Soviet'. The upper house of the Duma after 1906 was also called the 'State Soviet' - the word being exactly the same as the one used for the Supreme Soviet ('Verkhovniy Sovet'), and local soviets ('mestnye sovety' - 'local councils') during the Bolshevik period.
It is of course conventional, when using English, to leave the word 'soviet', in the meaning of a discussion/decision body, untranslated in a 1917-91 context (and also, with regard to workers' councils, in the context of 1905-06), and to translate it to 'council' in all other contexts, whether post-1991 or pre-1917. But such a distinction just could not occur in Russian, since exactly the same word is used in all of these contexts!
I am not sure that I will find time to correct this article. I could do a rough-and-ready job, but I feel it should be done with proper care, which would require time that I can't spare at the moment.
Anyone who wants to revise the article to take the above into account should read A Note on the Use of the Word 'Soviet'. I think a link should be given to this article at the end too. 158-152-12-77 00:11, 26 August 2005 (BST)
One thing I have found time to change is the last bit, which says that the noun 'soviet' was used as a noun to denote a person from the USSR. This was only true in vulgar usage. You would say 'he is Soviet', not 'he is a Soviet'. The latter would be akin to saying 'he is a French'. 158-152-12-77 11:44, 27 August 2005 (BST)
I have now found time to do a revision. 158-152-12-77 00:53, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
(I wrote this in User talk:Commander Keane, let's continue the discussion here.)
I strongly oppose your move and subsequent deletion (un-disambiguation) of the Soviet (disambiguation) page. I hope you only intended this as a temporary measure.
I plan to create a new disambiguation page for Soviet. The present contents should be moved to Soviet (russian word) and Soviet redirected to Soviet Union. Petri Krohn 03:02, 4 April 2006 (UTC)